Foundation
Artist
Brad J. Goldberg
Year2004
Classification
environmental art
Medium
granite, river rock
Dimensions80 x 300 ft. (2438.3 x 9143.6 cm)
Credits
Commissioned through the Art in Architecture Program
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
- The elliptical forecourt of the new Oklahoma City Federal Building is bisected by a stonewall that delineates the central axis of the building and its site. This wall runs from the exterior to interior of the building and serves as a dramatically textured feature of its atrium. Brad Goldberg's Foundation borrows and magnifies this geological motif. The artist juxtaposed the massive scale and solidity of the stone (approximately 1,000 tons of stone in a space measuring 80 feet by 300 feet) with the delicate sound and sight of rippling water. The roughly textured Wichita Mountain granite boulders and Pecan Valley river rock, both quarried from elsewhere in Oklahoma, also contrast with the smooth and rectilinear glass surfaces of the building.